Latitudes with Lucy

When most people imagine hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, they probably don’t picture staying in a cabin with real beds, showers, flush toilets, electricity, air conditioning and heating, and a full meal service. At Phantom Ranch, spending a night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is hardly “roughing it.” While I chose to hike to Phantom Ranch, there are mule rides that make a visit to the bottom of the Grand Canyon even more accessible.

Getting a reservation for Phantom Ranch is notoriously difficult, but we checked persistently for cancellations and were able to snag a night that overlapped with our week-long trip to Sedona. If your travel dates aren’t so flexible, you’ll have to try your luck at the Phantom Ranch lottery.

We planned our visit for January to avoid the desert heat. There is very little shade in the Grand Canyon, and I can’t imagine how brutal it would be to attempt this hike during the summer. The canyon rim was snowy in January, but the temperature warms nearly 20 degrees Fahrenheit as you descend to the bottom of the canyon. On the con side—the trails were practically an orange mud slip-and-slide from snowmelt at the rim.

We hiked down South Kaibab Trail and up Bright Angel Trail, which is the most popular route for visitors to Phantom Ranch. South Kaibab has some of the most iconic Grand Canyon views like “Ooh Aah Point,” and Bright Angel is the easiest trail for the return climb up to the rim. Both trails are on the South Rim, which is lower than the North Rim. The South Kaibab trailhead is 400 ft elevation higher than the Bright Angel trailhead.

Hiking down South Kaibab Trail, you descend 4,700 ft elevation over 7.4 miles. My group unanimously agreed that it was actually harder hiking down because of the stress on our knees.

At the bottom of South Kaibab Trail, hikers must cross the Black Bridge. Bright Angel Trail has the Silver Bridge. We caught a glimpse of the Black Bridge pretty early on in our descent down South Kaibab, and it was an intimidating perspective on how far we had to go. On the flip side, heading up Bright Angel, views of the trail below showed us how far we’ve come!

Heading back up Bright Angel Trail, you gain 4,300 ft elevation over 10 miles. In this scenario, longer trails are actually easier because the elevation change is more gradual. The last push up to the rim is the steepest part of Bright Angel.

If you spend a night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, you can’t miss stargazing. I was able to see the stars before the moon rose, and it was a truly incredible sight. The Grand Canyon is an otherworldly, majestic place.